Hammel on his spring debut

Jason Hammel made his spring debut this afternoon, throwing two scoreless innings against the Atlanta Braves. Hammel opened the game with a four-pitch walk to Luis Durango and he allowed a pair of singles in the second inning, but managed to get out of the jam. Afterwards, Hammel praised the work of catcher Matt Wieters behind the plate –saying he already feels like they are on the same page — and admitted his fastball command wasn’t really there. Here’s the rest of what Hammel had to say…

[on how he felt]

“Honestly for the first time out, considering all things, results were good. Struggled with the fastball, I was a little erratic today. That was m goal, just to work on fastball command, first inning was good, second inning was a little shady. It’s a B, C-plus for the effort coming out, working through some stressful times already, I was hoping that would come a little bit later.”

[on if he had some extra adrenaline for his first spring start]

“Definitely, not as much as in the intrasquad game believe it or not. It felt good to get back out between the lines and see some other colors on the jerseys and get in the competitive game again. It’s something that will go away and obviously for the first time out, I think it was a success.”

[on if he threw more fastballs than he would in a game]

“At the beginning of camp my main objective is to get fastball command. Today, mechanically I was off. Running away from the ball a little bit, basically, upper half was a little too quick but that’s an easy fix.”

[on what he did at the end of last season to have more success]

“Instead of thinking what not to do and thinking about mistakes that I could have made, it was more or less do what I want to do, and do what I can do. To simplify all that, basically I was pitching to the hitter instead of the glove. I was trying to pitch not to contact and that got me in trouble for a couple months last year and they ended up putting me in the ‘pen. Change of focus just get back into the glove and that’s what I did today and we got a couple more goose eggs. So, I’m very proud of that.”

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No surprise. He will probably be the opening day starter. Good to beat a good team and play good defense. Watch out for Jai Millier he just might make the 25 man roster if they keep 13 pitchers. Why keep older guys like Chavez. Give the kid a chance.He can DH and play the OF. Keep A utility inf. and backup catcher plus Betemit and 13 pitchers that’s your 25. Robert’s on the DL to start the season. You could go with 12 pitchers early and keep another position player like Chavez or Nick Johnson. Leaning towards Nick so Reynolds can stay at 3rd. Plus if healthy Nick has some pop in his bat and is good defensively. Good vet to have with a young inf.O’s4ever

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